'I thought you Hindus worship rats', W. says. 'You'll worship anything! Go on, get on your knees!' The gods can take animal form in Hinduism, he knows that, W. says. Even a rat is a gateway to the divine. Even a rat! It's because of the belief in reincarnation, of course, W. knows that. - 'How will you be reborn, do you think?'
W. remembers reading about some Hindu temple to rats. It was sacred to some mystic. Karni something. Karani Mata, I tell him. An incarnation of the Goddess. The rats were supposed to be incarnations of her descendants, or something, W. remembers. Anyway, the article showed pictures of thousands of rats, swarming all over the temple. Rats everywhere!
Of course, they're as friendly as anything, having no natural predators. Their numbers remain about the same – around 20,000 or so – and they're peaceable, free of aggression. Pilgrims bring them food to eat – sweet things, mostly – and leave out dishes of milk. It's supposed to be good luck when the rats stream over your feet. It's good fortune to nibble what they've nibbled, and sip on what they've drank.
Yes, he was even moved by the rats, basking on the bronze mesh that is supposed to keep birds of prey away, or scampering along the rat-runs the temple builders wore into the floor. They'll climb up visitors, as up walking trees, W. says. They'll climb, and if you hurt them, you have to give the temple a rat of the same size made of pure gold.
Is that what it was like before the Fall, man and rat? Was that what it was like for all creatures, basking together in the sun? And will that time come again, when humankind and our brother and sister creatures will each be an image of the Goddess?
Is that's what's going to happen to my flat?, W. wonders. Will it become a Hindu temple?
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